14-Year-Old Cheerleader Murdered By Man, 19, Who Reportedly Intended To Dismember Her

Last week, a 14-year-old Texas cheerleader was shot to death in her bedroom, allegedly by a 19-year-old boy whom she thought was 16. Police suspect that the two may have been involved romantically.

On October 1, Tristan Dilley, a cheerleader at Silsbee High School, was found by her 13-year-old brother with two gunshots to the head as she lay prone on her bed; her birthday would have been October 3, according to The Beaumont Enterprise. Jasper County Sheriff Mitchel Newman said, “From what we could gather, they were trying to see each other when her mother was gone.” He added that cell phone records indicated that Adams and Dilley had been texting prior to the murder and on the day that Dilley was shot.

Dilley’s family had gone shopping; no evidence of a struggle or forced entry was found. She had reportedly met Paul Audrey Adams, 19, who was named as a suspect in the murder, after a relative introduced them. The relative later told Adams to leave Dilley alone because of her age.

On Monday, as Texas Rangers met with Adams’ mother, Adams called his mother and informed her he was at Dilley’s home during the shooting, but said Dilley had been murdered by an intruder. When the Rangers said he could be a useful witness, he hung up.

Police found Adams hiding in a tent in a wooded area, but as they neared him, he shot himself fatally in the head. Chillingly, Newman said that items found at the campsite where Adams died led Newman and his deputies to think Adams intended to dismember or cut up Dilley’s body, then sink her remains in a canal, according to KJAS. Those items included knives, hatchets, ropes, burlap sacks, tarps and weights.

Newman concluded, “He ruined two families. Not just hers, but he ruined his, too.”